Southern California cities made a rather miserable showing for Earth Hour 2008. None of them participated, on a municipal level, that is. In fact, had a local weathercaster not mentioned Earth Hour in his daily e-mail yesterday morning, I myself would have been totally unaware that it was happening. Fortunately, other cities did participate: San Francisco, Denver, Chicago, Miami, Toronto, to mention a few in North America. I also didn’t see anything listed in England, Scotland or Wales, but Dublin was right up there.
Thanks to the World Wildlife Fund for this observance. Having the lights turned off from 8 p.m. to 9 p.m. local time was a rolling contribution to lessening CO2 being emitted, and an awe-inspiring commentary on what we can do, if we will just put our hearts and minds into preserving this wonderful world.
For more information and comments from those regions of the world that did participate, go to Earth Hour. You’ll find New Zealand, Australia, Suva and more. And let’s keep it going on a daily basis, not necessarily shutting off the lights from 8 p.m. to 9 p.m. every day, but conserving energy every way we can. And sign up for 2009!
http://www.shirleyannparker.com/discoveries.htm
Is it really any wonder that writing takes such a long time? Short of dumping one’s family and responsibilities altogether, there is little time available for creative work, when you’re the sole provider and must work a draining job in a collapsing industry. Yes, I hear you: single moms, working spouses, caretakers, and more of you. However, writing in a vacuum would produce vacuous material. Writers need some substance, a kernel on which to build. Hah! An entire ear of corn is the usual result of any given week. Friends are waiting for my bushels to be turned into novels. “How do you survive all the crap, Shirley?” Well, it ain’t easy getting slammed every day, any more than it’s easy being green. But we get through it! They don’t call me a steel magnolia for nothing, but even steel has many graphs showing tolerance levels for each scenario.
Yes, I know I could get up at 4:30 a.m. instead of 5:30 a.m. and just write, but you wouldn’t want to be around me when I’ve only had 5 hours of sleep. I don’t do mornings in the first place, so you don’t want me snarly on top of that. Especially when you’re snooping around my private property. It won’t just be the brown stuff that hits the fan if a 78-year-old coot comes back a third time.
One very big advantage to the future joys of retirement will be that, even though I’ll still be working, I will have earned the right to decide what is important and what is not. From that, I will decide on my schedule. In fact, like most creative people, I’m pretty close to having already decided what parts of our insane lifestyle are positive and worthwhile. The rest I’m starting to flush, and I recommend you do the same, readers, even if you don’t consider yourself to be creative. Mistake #1, by the way. We are all creative in one way or another. But we can’t do it all and there’s no sane reason why we should even try. So much in life is worthless, just garbage. Let it go! Focus on family and friendships.
And for a great, uplifting read, try Discoveries: A Journey Through Life